1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a superconductive optoelectronic device and a superconductive optoelectronic apparatus with a basic substance Cu.sub.2 O of superconductive-conjugate photoconductivity. The superconductive optoelectronic device of the present invention is novel and vastly different from those of prior art in that the invention uses a combination of the Cu-based superconductive oxide material and the basic material Cu.sub.2 O of special superconductive-conjugate photoconductive character which reveals photoconductivity below the critical temperatures of the Cu-based superconductive materials relevant to the basic substance Cu.sub.2 O.
The invention also relates to a superconductive optoelectronic apparatus with Cu.sub.2 O having a plurality with diversity of the superconductive optoelectronic devices produced therein in the form of integrated circuit ultra high density, e.g. in two dimensional array form.
The invention stems from the inventor's important discovery of a phenomenon that a certain basic substance reveals photoconductivity at temperatures below the critical temperatures of superconductivity T.sub.sc of relevant superconductors, and such photoconductivity of that basic substance is in a conjugate relationship with the superconductivity of the relevant superconductors.
In the ensuing description, the "basic substance" refers to the substance with the abovementioned character, or that substance which reveals the superconductive-conjugate photoconductivity to be defined below. The basic substance to be used in the present invention is cuprous oxide Cu.sub.2 O and the relevant superconductors are the Cu-based oxides.
Here, I define "Superconductive-Conjugate Photoconductivity" to be a photoconductive response exhibited in basic substances or host insulators which emerges in several steps with decreasing temperature in accordance or in correspondence with the critical temperatures of superconductivity in relevant conductive substances, all based on the discoveries and inventions disclosed by the present inventor in that "Photoconductivity" and "Super-conductivity" are conjugate with each other in a certain group of systems such as in Cu.sub.2 O and the Cu-based oxide superconductors.
2. Related Art Statement
With recent development of superconductive materials, various new superconductive substances have been found; for instance, superconductive oxide materials such as those of Y-Ba-Cu-O system and Bi-Sr-Ca-Cu-O system. However, most of current research efforts are focused on the raising of transition temperature or critical current, and not thorough studies except those on the reflection or scattering have been made on either optical properties of superconductive substance or industrial applications of such optical properties. The reason for it is that, generally speaking, researchers have considered that superconductivity is incompatible with such physical properties as optical absorption and photoconductivity and they have assumed that optical irradiation in the region of an excess amount of energy with the relevant wave number beyond the energy gap of the BCS theory will merely destroy the stability of superconductivity. Further, most of the superconductive materials which have been developed so far are metals or alloys or at least metallic materials, and no superconductive materials with useful optical properties have been found. No concept had existed, until the present inventor disclosed for the first time, on a new field to be called "Superconductive Optoelectronics".
On the other hand, if a high-temperature superconductive oxide material is combined with a recently recognized basic material such as Cu.sub.2 O of superconductive conjugate photoconductivity which reveals its proper photoconductivity at temperatures below the transition temperatures of the relevant Cu-based superconductive oxide materials, a number of new and more efficient electronic devices and optoelectronic apparatuses may be developed, for instance, a switching device with theoretically no power loss, an optically operating device with theoretically no power loss, an optically operating logical device, a space parallel type optically operating apparatus, a camera or an image forming device possibly with superconducting wiring, a high-speed optically operating apparatus to be driven at an extremely low power, and the like.